Acceptable Genealogical Sources
Primary Sources
Primary sources are preferable and include the following:
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are published materials citing primary source material for the assertions made therein. The following books are recommended, and in most circumstances and in the most recent editions, are considered authoritative.
Primary sources are preferable and include the following:
- Vital Records (births, deaths, marriages; permits and licenses; census data; etc.
- Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts and other papers in which individuals describe events in which they were participants or observers.
- Signed affidavits of memoirs and autobiographies. These may be less reliable than diaries or letters since they are usually written long after events occurred and may be distorted by bias, dimming memory or the revised perspective that may come with hindsight. On the other hand, they are sometimes the only source for certain information.
- Published materials (books, magazine and journal articles, newspaper articles, county histories) written at the time of a particular event. While these are sometimes accounts by participants, in most cases, they are written by journalists or other observers.
- Legible photographs of tombstones (include name and location of cemetery)
- Obituaries (include masthead of newspaper, including name, date published, and page)
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are published materials citing primary source material for the assertions made therein. The following books are recommended, and in most circumstances and in the most recent editions, are considered authoritative.
- Cokayne, George E. and Geoffrey H. White. The Complete Peerage. (Vol. 12A, Appendix L, pp. 47-8)
- Faris, David. Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth Century Colonists. (GPC, 1996)
- Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. (4 Vols., 2011)
- Richardson, Douglas. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. (3 Vols., 2011)
- Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry (5 Vols., 2013)
- Stuart, Roderick W. Royalty for Commoners … 3rd and 4th editions)
- Weis, Frederick Lewis. Ancestral Roots… (7th and 8th editions)
- Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Magna Charta Sureties. (5th edition)